Burkina Faso: Prime Minister wants to provide the country with a new Constitution

Apollinaire Joachim Kyelem de Tambela, the Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, spoke on Tuesday (May 30th) before the Transitional Legislative Assembly. He delivered his speech on "the state of the nation". A speech very marked by the security issue and the need for a new Constitution was evoked.

Prime Minister Apollinaire Joachim Kyelem of Tambela, October 26, 2022. © OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT / AFP

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For Apollinaire Joachim Kyelem de Tambela, the refoundation of Burkinabe society begins by providing the country with "a Constitution that reflects the aspirations of the population": "No one can truly emancipate himself from the values and references of others. The corollary of constitutional mimicry is not only the democratic deficit, but also the mimicry of governance that leads to dysfunction between the people and their administration. All of this constitutes an incubator of social unrest.

To modify the text, the Prime Minister intends to rely on Monitoring and Development Committees (Coved). Created in April by presidential decree, these civil and non-political organizations are to replace village councils. They will be the first to look at the Constitution: "The Coved will be instruments of organization and supervision of the populations who will thus take charge of themselves at the base. The Coveds will contribute to the drafting of a draft Constitution. Will the Burkina of tomorrow be a monarchy, if so, which one? Will it be a republic, if so in what form? That will be for the people to decide.

Once the refoundation of the nation is launched, the Prime Minister intends to work on national reconciliation. A ministerial committee is already working on the financing of compensation for victims of political violence.

«You can't hold elections without security»

The Prime Minister of Burkina Faso also said Tuesday that there could be no elections "without security", while two new terrorist attacks killed last weekend about forty people. "You can't have elections without security. If you have a magic wand that can give us security as soon as possible, we hold the elections."

The Burkinabe Prime Minister recalled that Burkina Faso refuses to negotiate with terrorists. He claims military successes, a decline of armed groups that he says has allowed more than 120,000 internally displaced people to return to their villages.

A reconquest, according to the Prime Minister who could have gone faster, if Burkina had not been abandoned by its former partners, especially on the issue of arms supply:

« Partners who do business in Burkina Faso have refused to sell us arms. Worse, some partners have even dissuaded others from doing so. Under other skies, these same partners who turned their backs on us, have overnight, transported considerable quantities of weapons to come to the aid of certain countries. This has led us to strengthen our relations with Russia, China, Turkey, Iran, North Korea and Venezuela [...]. Currently, thanks to President Traoré's interpersonal skills, each soldier can have his weapon and ammunition. With our new partnerships, we have been able to transparently acquire high-performance weapons that are 5 to 10 times cheaper. »

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